


The Sky Turned Dark Again

by orphan_account



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek AOS, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: Into Darkness - Fandom, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: AU, M/M, my fucked up head
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-30
Updated: 2013-05-30
Packaged: 2017-12-13 11:00:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/823553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a ship as big as the Enterprise, it's pretty impossible for a captain to know each crew member's name, but Jim still hates himself for not knowing which faces to fit to each name. However, there's one name, right at the top, and Jim knows that name better than he knows his own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sky Turned Dark Again

**Author's Note:**

> I've been finding it a little hard to write lately, so I'm mainly working of drabbles and ficlets.
> 
> Let's switch the ending of STID and say that Spock is the one that went into the Warp core and Khan got away, okay? (Yes, I know I could have just said the swap was in the idea of WOK, but leave me be, okay?!)

"It should have been me," Jim says. His standard Starfleet cap is pulled so low over his eyes that Uhura can't even them properly. That's probably for the best, he thinks.

"Captain..." Uhura says, but she trails off like she doesn't know words anymore. It's understandable. This has been the most Jim's spoken since Bones had dragged him kicking and screaming from the Warp Core compartment before jabbing him with a sedative. Since then there hasn't been very many words that Jim felt like saying -- anything he did want to say no longer had anyone to be said to, or were just too late.

Jim clears his throat and raises his head. He stares at the stone plaque, newly erected on the side of Starfleet headquarters. There are so many names, some he knows, some he doesn't. On a ship as big as the Enterprise, it's pretty impossible for a captain to know each crew member's name, but Jim still hates himself for not knowing which faces to fit to each name. However, there's one name, right at the top, and Jim knows that name better than he knows his own.

The lump in his throat isn't comforted by the way Uhura takes his hand in her's, but he accepts she only has good intentions. She's hurting too, everyone is. She's just trying to help, but it aches when he thinks about the last person to take his hand.

"What do we do now, Jim?" Uhura asks, her voice so quiet it's barely more than a whisper.

For a few seconds, Jim's mind is completely blank because he doesn't see a future ahead of him anymore. Before there had been stars and planets, phaser battles and stupid arguments with a Vulcan before tumbling into bed with his first officer and falling asleep with a smile on his face. Now there's not much of anything, other than one thing.

"We hunt the bastard down," Jim says, and he squeezes Uhura's hand, probably a little too tightly but she doesn't say anything. "And this time, he dies."


End file.
